Exemplary embodiments relate to an optical device, an optical device manufacturing method, and a projector.
A related art projector includes an optical modulation device to modulate a luminous flux emitted from a light source in response to image information to form an optical image, and a projection optical device to magnify and project the luminous flux modulated by the optical modulation device.
Out of these devices, the optical modulation device generally adopts, for example, an optical modulation element of active matrix drive mode having an electro-optic material, such as a liquid crystal hermetically sealed between a pair of substrates. Specifically, the pair of substrates configuring this optical modulation element, disposed on the luminous flux emergent side, includes: a drive substrate, formed with data lines, scanning lines, a switching element, a pixel electrode, and the like, to apply a drive voltage to the liquid crystal; and an opposite substrate that is disposed on the luminous flux incident side and is formed with a common electrode, a black mask, and the like.
An incident side polarization plate and emergent side polarization plate that transmit a luminous flux having a predetermined polarization axis are disposed on the luminous flux incident side and luminous flux emergent side of this optical modulation element.
When the optical modulation element is irradiated with the luminous flux emitted from the light source, the temperature of the optical modulation element tends to rise due to light absorption by a liquid crystal layer, light absorption by the data lines and scanning lines formed in the drive substrate, and light absorption by a black matrix and the like formed in the opposite substrate. Out of luminous fluxes emitted from the light source and luminous fluxes transmitted through the optical modulation element, a luminous flux that does not have the predetermined polarization axis is absorbed by the incident side polarization plate and emergent side polarization plate, so that heat tends to be generated in the polarization plates.
A related art projector has such an optical element inside thereof that is configured to include a cooling device using cooling fluid in order to reduce a rise in temperature of the optical element (e.g., see JP-A-1-159684).
That is, the cooling device described in JP-A-1-159684 includes a cooling chamber that supports the optical modulation element and the polarization plate on the light source side in spaced relation to each other and whose inside is filled with cooling fluid. This cooling chamber is connected in communication to a radiator and a fluid pump by tubes or the like capable of circulating cooling fluid inside thereof. Consequently, the inside cooling fluid circulates, via the tubes or the like, through the flow path from the cooling chamber through the radiator and the fluid pump to the cooling chamber. With such a configuration, heat generated in the optical modulation element and incident side polarization plate due to the luminous flux irradiated from the light source is radiated to the cooling fluid.